ByBryn Caswell and Fionnuala O’Leary/News21 |August 23, 2017

Most of the 43 million Americans who rely on private wells — some 288,000 in Iowa — don’t know if their water is safe to drink because unlike the regulation of public water systems, there is no government monitoring of wells. Another New21 water quality report, with links to IowaWatch reporting.

As many as 63 million people – nearly a fifth of the country – from rural central California to the boroughs of New York City, were exposed to potentially unsafe water more than once during the past decade, according to a News21 investigation of 680,000 water quality and monitoring violations from the Environmental Protection Agency.

ByEmily L. Mahoney/News21 |August 23, 2016

With the presidential election less than three months away, millions of Americans will be navigating new requirements for voting – if they can vote at all – as state leaders implement dozens of new restrictions that could make it more difficult to cast a ballot. A special report via News21.

ByJayson Chesler and Alexa Ard/News21 |August 27, 2015

Research on marijuana’s potential for medicinal use has been hampered for years by federal restrictions, even though nearly half of the states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana in some form. News21 report.

ByAndrew Knochel and Chad Garland/News21 |September 1, 2013

Overall, 1 percent of the charities raising money for veterans groups get 86 percent of the revenue. See who they are in this News21 report, which warns that much of the money at other places doesn’t reach veterans. Best advice: know where your money is going.

ByMeg Wagner, Anthony Cave and Hannah Winston/News21 |August 30, 2013

The federal government has yet to document how many students on the Post-9/11 GI Bill have graduated, or even if they stayed in school. Tom Harkin’s Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions questions whether or not veterans attending for-profit schools were benefiting from the education or being used to meet certain federal funding requirements. A committee led by Sen. Tom Harkin has looked into the problem.

Veterans are killing themselves at more than double the rate of the civilian population with about 49,000 taking their own lives between 2005 and 2011, a News21 reveals. Veterans committed one of every five suicides in Iowa in 2005 through 2011.

ByHannah Winston/News21 |August 26, 2013

The Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense spent at least $1.3 billion during the last four years trying unsuccessfully to develop a single electronic health-records system between the two departments — leaving veterans’ disability claims to continue piling up in paper files across the country, a News21 investigation shows. This does not include billions of other dollars wasted during the last three decades, including $2 billion spent on a failed upgrade to the DOD’s existing electronic health-records system. For a veteran in the disability claims process, these records are critical: They include DOD service and health records needed by the VA to decide veterans’ disability ratings and the compensation they will receive for their injuries. Stacks of paper files — including veterans’ evidence from DOD of their military service and injuries — sit at VA regional offices waiting to be processed instead of being readily accessible in electronic files. Although Congress repeatedly has demanded an “integrated” and “interoperable” electronic health-records system, neither the DOD nor the VA is able to completely access the other’s electronic records.

ByMary Shinn, Daniel Moore and Steven Rich/News21 |August 26, 2013

The Department of Veterans Affairs gave workers millions of dollars in bonuses for “excellent” performances that effectively encouraged them to avoid claims that needed extra work to document veterans’ injuries, a News21 investigation found.

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About Iowa Watch

The Iowa Center’s mission is to maintain an independent, non-partisan journalistic program dedicated to producing and encouraging explanatory and investigative journalism in Iowa, engaging in collaborative reporting efforts with Iowa news organizations and educating journalism students. Read More »

Investigative Reporting in Iowa

Iowa's Quad-Cities area in eastern Iowa and northwest Illinois competes with neighboring cities and states for tourism. But available funds for its convention and visitors bureau have been cut, creating a tough challenge, this Quad-City Times report shows.

Parents increasingly are borrowing money to finance their children's college education, despite warnings about such a practice, the Des Moines Register reports in a story that includes data searches and comments from parents who do this.